Flood sacks community, as residents resort to self help

Amidu Arije

Rainfall is supposed to be a thing of  joy for all, as it cools the environment and brings serenity to the hot weather condition in the country, but for residents of Old Ewu Road community in Mafoluku Oshodi, Lagos, it has always been a source of sorrow and lamentations for them, as it comes with heavy floods that affects their homes and businesses.

Old Ewu Road is one of the longest streets in Mafoluku, leading to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road. The road has been left unattended to for years, as the residents told The Nigerian Xpress when it visited the community.

According to them, the street has never been tarred since its existence and all efforts to getting government attention to assist them has proved abortive, as successive government have not hearkened to their calls.

The residents also disclosed that the drainage channel has been blocked by Pressken Hotels and Suites, on the Airport Road and blamed it for the major problem confronting them.

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Vice Chairman of Old Ewu Road Community Development Association, Mr. Thomas Onifade, stated that all efforts made by the community to plead with the owner of the  hotel to open the channel to allow free flow of water had been without positive response from the hotel management and that the government too is not willing to render help.

“We have resolved to helping ourselves, as the government refused to help us. Since this road has been in existence, it has never been tarred; every time it rains like this, we can not have access to our homes, vehicles cannot pass here. We bought pumping machines that we use to pass out water that enter our houses. In fact, last month, we bought four trucks of sands and broken blocks to fill the deepest parts of the road yet the flood still continued to affect us.

“When we complained to the local government they told us the road is too long for them to do, that it is the state government that can handle it. wW are confused and tired of this. If the local government cannot do it, it should make effort to get state government’s approval for the repair of the road. We also want them to talk to the hotel whose building is blocking the channel to make way for free flow of water.

“We equally want the new governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to help us in this community. During Babatunde Fashola’s regime, he did gutter for us, which has now been blocked by the hotel,” he lamented.

Another resident, Mr Kola Ogunsola, who took The Nigerian Xpress round the roads to the point where the hotel building blocked the channel, said if nothing is done now,  the entire area would suffer and business paralysed when the heavy rains start.

“This is just the beginning of rainfall and you can see the effect on us already. Our houses have been flooded; we will not be able to live here when the rain becomes heavy and the major problem here is the hotel that blocked out gutter. The government should please assist us in constructing the gutters and tar the road. They should also mandate the hotel to allow the channel free flow of water to avoid further blockage,” he said.

When The Nigerian Xpress contacted the management of the Presken Hotels and Suites, the Customer Care Representative, who attended to our correspondent,  said the manager wasn’t available and efforts  get his contact proved abortive, as she said she couldn’t release the manager’s contact.

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“The manager is not around now, I can’t tell you when he will be around, I don’t know his schedule; I can’t give you his contact either,” she said.

The Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Environmental Sanitation Department office was locked and there was no one to comment on the effort made by the local government on the state of the road.

The Head of Works Department of the council was also not available to comment on the road. When approached, a member of staff refused to make comments, saying they were not permitted to  do so. He also refused to give contact numbers of his superiors to our correspondent.

However, the Special Assistant on Media to the local government chairman, Mr. Bolaji Ariyoh, said the road is a state road but added that Ariyoh’s administration had been carrying out palliative measures on the road since inception of office.